What is that famous quote? "You can believe most of what you see, half of what you read, and none of what you hear.
" That sounds like pretty good advice, of course that famous quote was written far before the Internet came along, and therefore one should ask; what can you trust online? Would the answer be closer to nothing, or somewhere in between what you read and what you hear? Even if you see it online, there is a good chance it was doctored, Photoshop'ed, or video edited.
I think we all inherently know that now, don't we? Okay so let's talk about this shall we? In Regarding ID Magazine, Spring 2008 issue, there was an interesting article titled "My Avatar is Not Who He Claims to Be - First Impressions of Identity in Second Life" by Chris Corum (Executive Editor, AVISIAN Publications).
Interestingly enough, it is not just avatars, and screen names which are putting out false information online, many people using their real name are putting false information and stuff out on social networks thinking that no one will ever catch them as they embellish the truth to get their 15 minutes of fame.
That is indeed a huge problem.
We all know the problems with fake reviews for products and services, and how competitors will trash another business to make themselves look better, or go online and post hundreds of positive reviews for their own products.
This is completely unfair to the consumer, and it should be put into the same category as false and misleading advertising and marketing.
This is not only my contention, but I also believe that most consumer groups, as well as the FTC or Federal Trade Commission would concur.
Now then, during the Cold War when we were dealing in negotiating with the Russians, Ronald Reagan had an interesting quote; "trust, but verify," meaning that they would take the Russians or the Soviets at their word, but they would then go and verify everything which was promised, or stated as fact.
That makes sense right? The problem is; as a consumer you don't have the time to do that, and you are also relying on other people to make a comment when they see something which they know to be a clear misstatement, utter hokum, or an outright lie.
Now then to answer the question which is also the title of this article; "in social media should you first trust, or assume the worst?" I would say to that you should not automatically trust anything you read online, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that you should assume the worst.
First you should consider the credibility of who is producing the content, where it came from, or if it is someone who is merely replaying, reposting, or re-tweeting something that someone else said because at that point it becomes hearsay and it certainly wouldn't be accepted in a court of law.
Might I be so bold as to say that you should not accept it into your mind as factual in that case? Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.
" That sounds like pretty good advice, of course that famous quote was written far before the Internet came along, and therefore one should ask; what can you trust online? Would the answer be closer to nothing, or somewhere in between what you read and what you hear? Even if you see it online, there is a good chance it was doctored, Photoshop'ed, or video edited.
I think we all inherently know that now, don't we? Okay so let's talk about this shall we? In Regarding ID Magazine, Spring 2008 issue, there was an interesting article titled "My Avatar is Not Who He Claims to Be - First Impressions of Identity in Second Life" by Chris Corum (Executive Editor, AVISIAN Publications).
Interestingly enough, it is not just avatars, and screen names which are putting out false information online, many people using their real name are putting false information and stuff out on social networks thinking that no one will ever catch them as they embellish the truth to get their 15 minutes of fame.
That is indeed a huge problem.
We all know the problems with fake reviews for products and services, and how competitors will trash another business to make themselves look better, or go online and post hundreds of positive reviews for their own products.
This is completely unfair to the consumer, and it should be put into the same category as false and misleading advertising and marketing.
This is not only my contention, but I also believe that most consumer groups, as well as the FTC or Federal Trade Commission would concur.
Now then, during the Cold War when we were dealing in negotiating with the Russians, Ronald Reagan had an interesting quote; "trust, but verify," meaning that they would take the Russians or the Soviets at their word, but they would then go and verify everything which was promised, or stated as fact.
That makes sense right? The problem is; as a consumer you don't have the time to do that, and you are also relying on other people to make a comment when they see something which they know to be a clear misstatement, utter hokum, or an outright lie.
Now then to answer the question which is also the title of this article; "in social media should you first trust, or assume the worst?" I would say to that you should not automatically trust anything you read online, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that you should assume the worst.
First you should consider the credibility of who is producing the content, where it came from, or if it is someone who is merely replaying, reposting, or re-tweeting something that someone else said because at that point it becomes hearsay and it certainly wouldn't be accepted in a court of law.
Might I be so bold as to say that you should not accept it into your mind as factual in that case? Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.